According to news agency IANS, speaking at the public rally in Saharanpur, she said, “Various arms and agencies of the central government like Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Income Tax (IT) have been let loose on opposition leaders to intimidate them and muzzle their voice.”

Mayawati also alleged that the Central government is cheating the ‘hapless farmers’ and this fraud has been exposed. She said, “The fraud they are doing on the hapless farmers is being exposed now as at many places farmers have got loan waiver cheques of Rs 1 and Rs 10.”

Addressing the first ever public rally since her resignation from the Rajya Sabha, Mayawati justified it saying she took the decision when she was not allowed to speak about the problems faced by her ‘people’. “When I was not being allowed to raise the issues regarding my people, I decided to resign,” she said.

The BSP supremo also spoke about the alleged tampering of the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and said the ‘faulty and tampered EVMs affected the BSPs and helped the BJP to win in the state. Noteworthy that, following her loss in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections earlier this year, she was one of the first to raise doubts over the fair functioning of the EVMs.

Mayawati also assured her supporters and party workers that desertion by senior leaders and other conspiracies by the opponents will not deter her struggle for the cause of Dalits and their upliftment.

New Delhi, September 17: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is updating all its 182 textbooks for the new academic year April 2018. The chapters in the textbooks will include topics such as note ban and Goods and Services Tax (GST). NCERT will be changing its textbooks after 10 years.

Along with some corrections, updates, and addition of information, the textbooks will have topics like demonetisation, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao and Swachhta. But the major focus of NCERT will be the correction of spelling mistakes and language simplification.

According to Times of India report, NCERT director Hrushikesh Senapaty said that texts will be sent for printing within a month when it will be ready. Schools and individuals will get these newly printed books by March before the new academic session starts in April 2018. He said that students can place an order for the new books and they’ve already received a few orders.

He added, “The books will be delivered via post as they need to be delivered to remote areas as well.” The Council has already got over 3 crores orders for the books next year on their websites. Senapaty expects an order of 13 crores books this year as all the CBSE schools refer these textbooks.

New Delhi, September 18: Mudra Institute of Communications Ahmedabad (MICA) recently announced the MICAT 2018 entrance examination dates for the Post Graduation Diploma in Management-Communication programme. As per the announcement, the entrance will be held twice. MICAT I will be held on December 17, 2017 and MICAT II is scheduled for February 17, 2018. The application procedure for MICAT I will begin from September 26.

According to reports, the MICAT I is coinciding with the Symbiosis National Aptitude (SNAP) test. There are also speculations that the date of MICAT I might be changed. The application procedure which starts on September 26 will end on November 30.

Admit cards for MICAT I will be issued on December 11 and the results are expected to be declared on January 3, 2018. The application procedure for MICAT II will begin on January 3, 2018 and will close on February 5, 2018.

Admit cards for MICAT II will be issued on February 9, 2018 and the results will be declared on February 26, 2018.

MICA will announce the list of names shortlisted for Group Exercise (GE) and Personal Interview on March 1, 2018. Scores of CAT 2017, XAT 2018 or GMAT (2016 onwards) will be also considered during the shortlisting procedure. For candidates who appears for MICAT, their performance and better score in MICAT I and II will be taken into consideration.

According to reports, while 50 per cent weightage will be given to MICAT 2018 performance and score, 18 per cent will be given to the group exercise. 30 per cent of weightage will be given to the personal interview and the remaining 2 per cent will be given to CAT or XAT or GMAT scaled scores.

The GE and PI round will be reportedly held in three phases. The first phase will be held in Delhi and Kolkata and the second phase will be held in the MICA campus in Ahmedabad. The third phase will be held in Bangalore and Mumbai.

New Delhi [India], September 15: The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Centre and all states and asked them to file a reply within three weeks in connection with a plea filed by two women lawyers seeking implementation of the existing guidelines to ensure safety and security of children in schools.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar, had earlier said that it has already issued a notice on a similar plea filed by the father of the child, who was killed at the Ryan International School.

In its plea, they sought the implementation of various existing guidelines on the safety of school-going children.

Also, earlier, the Supreme Court had issued a notice to the Centre, the Haryana Government and the state’s Director General (DG) of Police, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the CBI on a plea seeking a probe by the central agency into the murder of a seven-year-old boy inside the Ryan International School.

After this, the CBSE issued a circular mentioning guidelines to be adopted by all schools for ensuring the safety of the students.

The CBSE, in its circular, directed schools to install CCTV cameras, ensure police verification of staff and regulate entry of outsiders in school building.

Seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found dead inside the toilet of the Ryan International school, with his throat slit. (ANI)

New Delhi, September 18: Global giant Google has launched a mobile payment application Tez, which will enable users to transact money digitally. The mobile application will be linked to bank accounts and it enables users to pay in a secure way–both physically and online.

“Send money home to your family, split a dinner bill with friends, or pay the neighbourhood chaiwala. Make all payments big or small, directly from your bank account with Tez, Google’s new digital payment app for India,” Google said.

Tez will not be an e-wallet like PayTM. In PayTM, money has to stored in the e-wallet. In Tez, money will be directly deducted from bank accounts, hence there will not be any need to store the money. Reports say that Axis, HDFC, ICICI, SBI and other banks that use UPI, will be supported by the application.

New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) expects to collect Rs 2,000 crore as penalty on savings bank accounts which have failed to maintain a minimum balance, a sum which may be used to partly cover the costs incurred on the linking of accounts with Aadhaar.

The recent directive of the government to link all savings bank accounts with Aadhaar by December 31 was a “very costly affair” as lenders were already facing high costs in maintaining such accounts and complying with the KYC (know your customer) requirement, says SBI Managing Director Rajnish Kumar.

To recover such costs, including the lender’s costs on ATMs and business correspondents, the bank expects to realise over Rs 2,000 crore in the current fiscal from account holders as penalty for failing to maintain minimum balance in their savings accounts, he said.

“Maintaining savings bank accounts and complying with KYC requirement is not an easy task. Now the government has said that you have to link Aadhaar to each and every account by December 31. So I have to look at (SBI’s) 40 crore (savings bank) accounts and it is a very costly affair,” he told IANS.

According to the government’s mandate, all existing bank account holders will have to submit Aadhaar card numbers to banks by December 31 this year, failing which the accounts will become invalid.

Kumar said that the process would add to the costs of banks as it involves a process and making changes in the IT-backend as well.

“It (Aadhaar linking) is a costly affair because you have to contact the customer, you have to do the process, you have to make changes in IT. There are costs associated with savings bank accounts,” he said.

The largest public lender said it also invests heavily in technology requirement to take care of the transactions made in the savings bank accounts.

The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 54.58 per barrel (bbl) on 15.09.2017. This was higher than the price of US$ 54.56 per bbl on previous publishing day of 14.09.2017.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs. 3497.29 per bbl on 15.09.2017 as compared to Rs. 3495.38 per bbl on 14.09.2017. Rupee closed weaker at Rs. 64.08 per US$ on 15.09.2017 as compared to Rs. 64.07 per US$ on 14.09.2017. The table below gives details in this regard: